Desktop/horizontal. Of course, I have 5 minitowers and 1 desktop - it's been really hard to find cases (other than $150 eBay specials with rust and/or bad photos).

Better/cheaper 3D printing may eventually solve this for me and others - though some of the nicer cases from back in the day were a little complex (Everex Step with the info/control panel, for example, or Compaqs).

Eventually it'll be harder to get the back portion of the case made - but if enough people want them someone could do a run of "universal AT cases" for the metal only, make/provide your own front plastic. That would be nice - but probably expensive.

For modern computers, a mid-size tower is easier to get out of the way. My main desktop and file server are on shelves next to my desk.

Take what ever I can get. These days I prefer OEM slim lines because they're easier to hide under the bed from her in doors. Usually set them up for a particular OS. For example I have a DECpc set up with OS/2 Warp v3 with networking. To be honest I haven't aquired any AT mini towers at all as they weren't that popular down here. Have a soft spot for mini AT desktop cases, as my first x86 system had one with the lift up top.It had enough bays for my needs at the time. AT desktop cases generally place the monitor at just the right viewing height I've found.

The Everex Step around 1990 is one of my favorite desktop cases.

I'm a big OEM person but my fav design is the corner computer, it sucks to work on but man does it look cool. 🤣

cyclone3d wrote:

I use whatever case that I am sure will provide enough cooling for the hardware I am going to be using.

Old cases are getting really hard to get for a decent price.

Folk drop them off to me for nothing.

Lazar81 wrote:

Hello,
I really like to put my retro hardware in modern cases unless it is AT-standard. It looks beautiful. I often saw that people here like to stay retro with the housing. So what do you think? Is it essential for the retro-feeling to have ones socket7/slot1/slota/socket370/462...in a good old 90s beige case or do you say it looks better in a modern black one ... Maybe with a window.

You don't need windows to have a good time.

LPX "Pizza box" desktops is my favorite, something about those dimensions. I find standard AT Desktops look fat.
Of course that's the problem, it isn't a standard. So would pick a tower over a standard AT desktop.

I like the practicality of desktop cases though, you can stack them and the limited drive space inside isn't as much of an issue with CF cards etc.

Caluser2000 wrote:

You don't need windows to have a good time.

🙄

King_Corduroy wrote:

I'm a big OEM person but my fav design is the corner computer, it sucks to work on but man does it look cool. lol […]
Show full quote

I'm a big OEM person but my fav design is the corner computer, it sucks to work on but man does it look cool. 🤣

Looks really nice. How are inner parts assembled?

I would use an InWin A500 for anything modern and vintage alike if I could find any.

I loved those Gateway 2000 cases like these

Lazar81 wrote:

Looks really nice. How are inner parts assembled?

The PSU is probably the weirdest part honestly as it's a weird L shape to allow room for the CD-ROM (5.25") drive bays on the right there. The middle part just slides off (the grey bit in the middle) and the fronts of each of the corners have to be removed via tabs you push in on the bottom and then lift the bottom out and up of each of those. Wrestling the right one off is a nightmare. The 5.25" drive bays use a rail system exactly like the Packard Bell designer towers so unless you can locate some of those you may be stuck with just whatever the machine came with for drives unless you don't mind drives sitting loose and crooked in their bays. In addition the PSU and the drives as well as the riser card with whatever cards you have installed obscure the motherboard completely. You basically have to take everything out of it in order to work on the motherboard or do a mobo swap (which I actually did on this since it was originally a Socket 5 that could only go up to a 166mmx (iirc) and I upgraded it to a mobo capable of socket 7 200MMX (out of a different model PB machine, these use LPX motherboards with a very specific layout with that riserboard so you can't just swap them for a regular AT or ATX mobo).

I have always swooned over mini towers. They're just adorable. I've been drawn to them ever since the old days, paging through PC World, PC Computing, and Computer Shopper. There would be some ad with a big ol CRT, keyboard, mouse, and a cute little baby AT tower... something like "486!" within abstract colored shapes on the screen, and a glowing "33" on the front panel. Ahhh, love... <3

Desktops were never really my favorite, although the first PC that was mine all mine, was a desktop AST Advantage 486SX/25. I ended up buying one I happened to see on Ebay because the nostalgia was too much to pass it by. I had a bit of a love/hate with that machine.. it came with 2MB of RAM and an 80MB HDD, which was just NOT enough. I struggled with that for a while until finally building a DX2/66 in a cheap no-name mini tower. (^_^)

I prefer desktop cases with a large CRT monitor on top for XT/286/386 and some 486 systems and tower for the newer stuff. I have had tower in that time period as well (I built my own systems back then). 386 and 486 Gateway2000 desktops are nice. I kept reusing Enlight AT cases (desktop and towers) up to the P2 era and then started using Inwin in the ATX era. I do like modern gamer cases for their cable management but those are starting to ditch all optical drive bays and I will like DVD burners.

Stuffing a vintage motherboard into a newish black ATX case just doesn't look good to me.

chinny22 wrote:

LPX "Pizza box" desktops is my favorite, something about those dimensions.

I agree. For systems that don't need major cooling, 286 and 386, I prefer LPX cases as well because it's easy to stack them. As a matter of fact, I recently build my 286 and 386 into two identical LPX cases:

What retro activity did you get up to today?

Well, I am most doing retro stuff to experience again what I experienced in 25-35 years ago. When it comes to retro it is the horizontal desktop cases that make me feel like I am going back in time. It doesn't matter that much they they are not very practical and take lots of space because they are just important part of what I am looking for when it comes to retro hardware. My main retro PC is 486 33Mhz and it takes a long time to take the desktop case apart if I want to change something inside, but I don't mind.

My general rule is:
- desktop for XT and 286
- tower for 386+

But I'm not anal about this, I do accept exceptions.

My first tower case was a pentium. Everything before that was desktop cases.

For old 386/486 computers the tower was probably preferred because you had to have extra cards. like video, IDE controller, sound card, modem, network, SCSI, CDROM controller, etc.
So you needed a motherboard with allot of expansion slots and a case to go with it.

But some old OEM 486 computers with built-in video and IDE controller , PS2 ports and serial ports. Don't require all these extra expansion slots so a desktop is fine.

I like how desktop cases look, but one thing that's really impractical about them is that you can't leave the monitor sitting on them while you're opening them up to work on them. I think a desktop case is valid on all systems up to and including Pentiums. Desktops were still quite popular during the 486 days (maybe even more popular than towers), and many of the P60 and P66 Pentiums had them too. It really started to go away when the 3.3V stuff came along.
I really appreciate full size AT desktops...especially the Gateway 2000 ones.

If you're going to go with a tower, you might as well go for a full tower with 6 5.25" drive bays, or get one that's really fat and stumpy. I think the MHz display is better suited to towers as well.